Anyway, it's better to just get straight to the point with this post; last year, Marvel released Thor: The Mighty Avenger. It was an instant home run in terms of critical reception and it seemed to be winning over a lot of people with it's charm and overall fantastic story. At least it seemed that way at first. Sadly, it wasn't to last as the book soon became cancelled due to poor sales, the last issue just having come out last week. Now, I've already gotten my issues with that book failing off of my chest; it sucks that we live in a world where this one fantastic book couldn't sell while piles upon piles of mediocre crap continues to live on. I had made my peace and I was pretty much moving on. However, I just found out today that Captain America: The Fighting Avenger, a book that seems to be much in the same model of Thor TMA, is getting downgraded from an ongoing to a one-shot. That's right; this book isn't even out yet and it's getting the boot because a very similar book failed.
Now, I know I haven't even read this book because it's not out yet, so I can't go around ranting about this amazing book is dying. That being said, this is a book written by Brian Clevinger that looks to be very funny, but still action packed that takes place in World War II. Oh wait, that sounds just like Atomic Robo Volume 2, which was a fantastic book. Oh, and the art is going to be done by Gurihiru, the artist who does the art for Power Pack books that everyone loves so much. With a team like that, the odds are in the favor of this book being pretty good.
Still, quality isn't really the problem that's making me angry; I'm angry that this book isn't even getting a chance simply because another book didn't do well. That's crap. But I can't be angry at Marvel for this one; at the end of the day they're a business and they can't go on something that looks like it'll fail for them. This isn't they're fault. No, this time I'm angry at the fans.
Now, let me clarify that I'm not angry at the very few people who actually bought the book. I'm angry at the scanners and the droves upon droves of people who download books for free through whatever means they choose to do so. If you downloaded even a single issue of Thor: The Mighty Avenger then you're part of the problem here. You've not only damned one wonderful little story, but you've robbed another of it's chance at being told in full. And if you scanned a book and put it online, then I hope you're happy with yourself. And I'm sure you've got your justifications about how you're offering a taste for potential buyers or whatever crap it is you're shoveling out. It doesn't make a bit of difference at all because you're part of the problem. You're the reason why people can choose the alternative of getting the book for free illegally instead of buying them legally.
And scans aren't some small problem; there are tons of people downloading comics out there for free because they have that alternative. Hell, go on 4chan's comic and cartoon board for an hour and see how long it takes for someone to make a "story time" thread for a comic. And that's not even counting whatever 4chan clones there are out there where people are posting more links or making more "story time" threads. Chances are Thor TMA had a story time thread. And odds are, there were a link to download the scans somewhere in the thread so that anyone who didn't want to wait for all the images to be posted could read it all. That's a whole bunch of readers who probably aren't going to buy that book now, because they've got it for free.
And I could probably go on for so much longer about this. But it won't change a goddamn thing because Captain America: The Fighting Avenger is dead and you've all had a hand in it. I hope you're all happy.
